North Korea says it has "shocking evidence" of US

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has charged the United States with counterfeiting its own currency and shifting the blame to Pyongyang, adding artists with "blood-shot eyes" in Japan are making cartoons attacking Pyongyang's leaders.

A spokesman for the Ministry of People's Security said in a statement the North had obtained "shocking evidence" Washington and Tokyo are producing false material that gives the impression Pyongyang is a criminal state, the North's KCNA news agency said late Wednesday.

"The CIA secretly enlist(s) experts on counterfeiting notes claimed to be the 'most sophisticated in the world' and invite(s) them to issue lots of fake currencies at 'counterfeit notes printing houses of North Korean-style' operating in U.S. military bases in different parts of the world," the spokesman said.

U.S. Treasury officials have briefed various governments about Washington's suspicions that North Korea has for years been producing a high quality copy of its $100 bill. U.S. officials have dubbed the copy the "supernote."

"Although Pyongyang denies complicity in any counterfeiting activity, at least $45 million in such supernotes of North Korean origin have been detected in circulation, and estimates are that the country earns from $15 million to $25 million per year from counterfeiting," the U.S. Congressional Research Service said in a report in March.

The North Korean spokesman said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had enlisted the help of artists in Japan to produce and distribute video tapes and CDs that falsely accuse North Korea of violating human rights and conducting illicit activity.

"The CIA and plot-breeding organizations in Japan are working with blood-shot eyes to produce animation files aimed at attacking the DPRK," the report said.

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea has denied taking part in illicit activities.

The report did not give more information about the contents of the animation but said they are appearing in the mass media in the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Officials from the United States, Japan and other regional powers have been trying to get North Korea to return to stalled talks on ending Pyongyang's atomic programs.

The talks have hit a snag over a U.S. crackdown on firms Washington suspects of aiding North Korea in illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug trafficking.

North Korea has said it is unthinkable for it to return to the nuclear talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States when Washington is trying to topple its rulers through financial pressure.

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."